Indie Corner: Zombie Dice

*Editors note: this review is an actual dice game -

You are dead.  The when, where, how and why is irrelevant.  You shamble towards a group of potential new victims, arms out-stretched and letting out a soulless moan as you claw at the air.  The three turn towards you, one shrieking and running off, the other raises a weapon, blasting you once with a shotgun, then dashing off to regroup with the coward.  The blast rocks your body with the force, but you trundle onward undaunted.  Reaching the nearest of your prey still stricken with shock, you lurch upon the poor survivor and feast.  Your meal consumed, you turn in the direction the two remaining survivors ran, shambling onward yet again.

Zombie Dice is a quick, simple, and fun little game from Steve Jackson games.  Any number of players compete to eat the most brains as quickly as possible.  Games usually last around 10 to 20 minutes, increasing in length and, more importantly, fun as the number of players increase.  Each player takes turns rolling three dice, representing a group of delicious survivors.  The results of your attack can vary wildly depending on your luck that roll.  Sometimes you get shot, but keep on going, other times you get a smorgasbord of tasty grey matter.  If you have scorned the dice gods or you are just plain unlucky, you may even get mowed down before you can even make a swipe.

The three different colors of dice reflect differing difficulty levels and change the ratio of symbols which lead you to lunch or a nice dirt-nap. Brain symbols are downed victim, and potential point, while the feet symbol represents a potential victim running away, letting you peruse.  Finally, shotgun blasts represent the damage the survivors deal to your rotting carcass and, just like in base-ball, three and you're out.  All those points you worked hard to get that round are gone, lost to the ether.  Will you press your luck and try to eek out an edge against your opponents?  Or will you end up charging a group of survivors armed to the teeth?

ombie dice is a great game for a group of friends and the omnipresent luck aspect of the game keeps things interesting and exciting.  I've seen players earn a whopping 8 points in one round, seen some lucky undead take down an heavily armed survivor with no fight, and even a poor corpse or two get gunned down by three lightly armed survivors before it could even catch a bite.  I highly recommend this game to anyone who enjoys a bit of randomized fun with some good friends.

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